AN INSPIRING MESSAGE TO ALL NEW DOCTORS

AN INSPIRING MESSAGE TO ALL NEW DOCTORS

One hundred percent credit goes to Dr. Fidel Nemenzo, former Chancellor of UP Diliman, for delivering one of the most inspiring commencement speeches I have read in a long while. He delivered it last August 10, 2025, before the graduates of St. Luke’s College of Medicine. I wish this message could be heard not just by this year’s graduates but by all new generations of doctors—now and in the future.

Better yet, I wish every medical school would adjust its curriculum to produce the kind of doctors Dr. Nemenzo envisions, physicians who see beyond the stethoscope, beyond the test results, and into the deeper realities that shape a patient’s health.

Dr. Nemenzo began by acknowledging the families of the graduates, recognizing that behind every doctor is a community of love, sacrifice, and support. Becoming a doctor, after all, is not just a matter of passing exams—it is a marathon of discipline, courage, and perseverance.

Then he told a deeply personal story—not about practicing medicine, but about surviving death. Shot in the back with an M-16 during martial law, he lay bleeding for an hour before reaching a hospital, underwent five hours of surgery, and survived only because the bullet missed vital organs by mere centimeters. The lesson? Dying, he said, is not always physiological—sometimes it is a matter of choosing to fight and live.

From his days in the ICU, he remembered that what gave him the greatest comfort was not just painkillers, but the quiet presence of a nurse and the kindness of a doctor. Medicine, he reminded the graduates, is both science and humanity. Healing is shaped not only by biology, but also by culture, economics, politics, and memory.

He warned against being trapped in the rigid confines of expertise. The great challenges—pandemics, malnutrition, mental health, environmental damage—are never just clinical problems. They are tangled up with poverty, inequality, and governance. His advice: listen to unfamiliar voices, learn from different fields, and work in true collaboration.

I agree with him completely. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we saw how health was not just a medical issue but a justice issue. Social injustice kills—and it kills the poor first. A healthy nation cannot be built without fixing the social and economic conditions that undermine health in the first place.

For Dr. Nemenzo, the social contract of medicine is clear: to serve, protect life, and heal body and spirit. Healing a patient also means challenging the systems that fail them. That means being an advocate, not just a clinician.

He spoke about universal health care not as a technical reform but as a moral commitment—that every Filipino should have access to quality care regardless of status or wealth. And this, he said, needs the dedication of doctors who see patients as people with their own stories, not just as cases or numbers.

I wish more medical schools taught this kind of perspective. In my view, empathy should be as important as anatomy in the curriculum. The future of medicine may be full of artificial intelligence, robotics, and genomics, but as Dr. Nemenzo put it, “No machine will hold the hand of a grieving parent.” The human touch is irreplaceable.

He laid out five pieces of advice: keep learning, practice fairness, partner with communities, hold fast to your purpose, and live by your values. He quoted Aldo Leopold’s definition of ethics—doing the right thing even when no one is watching.

He also reminded the graduates to care for themselves. Burnout is real, and doctors who neglect their own health eventually compromise their ability to care for others.

In his closing, Dr. Nemenzo called on the new doctors to let their excellence shine not just in skill but in service, to make their work a quiet daily act of love for the country and its people.

I couldn’t agree more. If our new doctors embrace even half of this vision, we could see a revolution in Philippine healthcare—not driven by technology alone, but by compassion, advocacy, and a deep commitment to justice.

Ramon Ike V. Seneres, www.facebook.com/ike.seneres
iseneres@yahoo.com, 09088877282, senseneres.blogspot.com

10-17-2025 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

HOW IS THE CRIME RATE COMPUTED IN THE PHILIPPINES?

HOW IS THE CRIME RATE COMPUTED IN THE PHILIPPINES? When we talk about the crime rate in the Philippines, we often assume that the figures we see are accurate reflections of reality. But have we ever paused to ask—how exactly is the crime rate computed? Where does this data come from, and how reliable is it? The computation of the crime rate in the Philippines is officially handled by the Philippine National Police (PNP). The formula itself is straightforward: Crime Rate = (Total Reported Crimes / Total Population) x 100,000 This simple equation gives us the number of crimes per 100,000 people, allowing for fair comparison across regions and time periods. However, the reality behind these numbers is more complex than it appears. Data from the Ground The foundation of our national crime rate is empirical data collected at the grassroots level—from individual police stations scattered across the country. Every reported crime is logged in local police blotters, forming the buil...
Read more

GREY AREAS IN GOVERNMENT FUNCTIONS

GREY AREAS IN GOVERNMENT FUNCTIONS Dear Mr. President: May I ask who is going to be the arbiter or referee whenever there are overlaps in functions between two or more government agencies? I imagine that there would be no problem if these agencies would just cooperate and collaborate with each other, but what if they are unable to settle their differences and they would just end up throwing blame at each other or finger pointing at each other? Allow me to cite some examples. Who is supposed to take the lead in waste to energy projects? Is it supposed to be the DENR that is supposed to handle waste? Or is it supposed to be the DOE that is supposed to handle energy generation? Or is it supposed to be the DILG since it is the one that could direct or influence the waste to energy projects of LGUs? Who is supposed to take the lead in producing and promoting the use of biofuels? Is it supposed to be the DA, since the production of biofuels is supposed to be all about planting biofuel ...
Read more

LOCALIZED FREE AMBULANCE SERVICES

LOCALIZED FREE AMBULANCE SERVICES As it is supposed to be, anyone in the Philippines should be able to dial 911, and a telephone operator should be able to dispatch fire, rescue, ambulance and police (FRAP) units as soon as possible, based on acceptable response times. I invented the FRAP acronym for easy recall, and I hope it sticks, if there is no other alternative. Unfortunately, due to a mixture of technical and political reasons, the Philippines has not adopted 911 as a national number, because some LGUs would rather use their own three-digit numbers such as 117 and 168. I actually proposed a technical solution to that problem, but it was not adopted either. For whatever it is worth, my solution is to install a call forwarding system that could route all calls to a central operator, regardless of what number is dialed. It is very sad for me to know that up to now, even if our country is already over one hundred years old, there are still many LGUs that do not have fire trucks. it ...
Read more